Mercenaries kickstarter 2023
Because I somehow missed the original kickstarter for Operation:REVIVAL, I was on this one like an angry walrus. My immediate pledge was a step lower but I pretty quickly bumped it to the Company level. Greed for stuff that got included in the higher levels as the stretch goals got unlocked was the only reason, no reason to deny that.
My list got the obvious Mercs box itself, the challenge coins, Clan dice, the quickish joiner's (#8707) benefit Visigoth and the ten-centimeter Timber Wolf and such, but also a couple of boxes from a neat selection. One of the extras that sneaked in was the Map-Scale Overlord-C DropShip and it was pure madness, and its only reasonable home was my Jade Falcon Cluster under the name of Quatrefoil.
- Limited Edition Mercenaries box set
- Laser effect dice: Clan Jade Falcon
- Laser effect dice: BattleTech chevron, grey
- Challenge coin: Star League
- Mercenaries Posters x3
- 100mm Timber Wolf
- Mercenaries ForcePack: Clan Direct Fire Star
- Mercenaries ForcePack: Battlefield Support objectives
- Mercenaries ForcePack: Legendary MechWarriors II
- Mercenaries ForcePack: Legendary MechWarriors III
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: Blood Asp
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: Battlefield Support
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: Battlefield Support
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: random BattleMech
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: random BattleMech
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: Savannah Master
- Mercenaries Salvage Box: Visigoth
- Clan Invasion ForcePack: Clan Ad Hoc Star
- Clan Invasion Salvage Box: random OmniMech
- Map-scale Overlord-C
That Savannah Master box in the list was supposed to be a surprise to backers, but that got leaked way before the first person got their delivery. On top of all this physical goodness the campaign also included a bunch of eBooks, some of those I already owned thanks to the BattleTech Humble Book Bundles or via the previous kickstarter. I was not going to run out of readables anytime soon.
The wait-delivery process
The campaign's estimate was shown in the screenshot above, "June 2024", which was not worth anchoring onto, as the various kickstarters I've participated in have taken years longer. Some people have always taken these estimates as unbreakable promises and would keep doing that. This was a familiar pattern from work, so I wasn't too surprised when the campaign comments were full of white-hot fury. My favourite was someone in the early summer, who with his own full name visible went all American and screamed how CGL had no intention of delivering anything and how it was all a scam, and how the lawyers would have a field day. Bwahahaha :D
2024
In the early August one update was boasting how 50% the North America was completed. Not a whisper about the rest of the world, but considering the VAT and customs the EU bureaucracy was going to make things slower, so I guessed there wasn't anything to be said about us poor people. It just amused me along the lines of "so what do I care about that, hm?" but maybe US-centricity was to be expected.
The rest of the world's shipping was still pending in the early September so my summery guess of "at least 3 months after the americans" had been ridiculously overoptimistic :D
Later, during November-December the EU shipments were first in "the first address confirmations were sent last weekend, yay!" to "Oops, that wasn't true, everything's stuck in customs. We'll know more next week." which only increased the likelyhood of something maybe happening just when we were going to be away from home for a couple of weeks. Just before the Saturnalia the message was "We'll let you know if something happens" so nothing was going to happen in ages after all.
2025
Right in the beginning of January '25 (on 2.1.) the radio silence continued, which didn't bother me on vacation. I checked what Backerkit said, and I had been charged in three different dates (May and September 2023, and in May 2024), whatever that meant with the waves, if they used those for the rest of the world.
The clearest update regarding the EU deliveries came mid-January: they were stuck with the customs and paperwork (in short: all the SKUs were to be connected to individual payments and so on, instead of lumping them to deliveries). I thought this was going to take months at this rate. Then the next morning my email had a "EU customs done", so I had been quite wrong. Even more confusingly the same early Thursday afternoon I got an address confirmation message from QML. Did this mean I could start getting excited?
No, it didn't mean that: a late-January update said that the deliveries might start, maybe, potentially, on 10.2., which translated into "maybe before my summer vacation" in my mind. About two weeks after that one there was an update declaring how they (CGL) had seen photos and screenshots of delivery messages in the EU area. Shockingly the non-american deliveries were done in these waves of theirs, and based on my payment timestamps I was supposed to be in the first EU wave.
In March "EU: Wave 1 and 2 are about 48% complete. It will start to slow down as they take their time with larger orders to ensure accuracy." I wasn't thinking that my silly Company + two extra items would be a larger order, but apparently I was in the shittier end of the lists for a change. Laurentius, who's also a local BT enjoyer, said he had got his tracking code around the Feb/Mar change, while I could just grumble by myself. By mid-March he had got his stuff home, I even saw a photo. Getting closer!
In the afternoon of 26.3., nicely right after my day's meetings, I got a process message in my inbox. The message made me chuckle out loud:
Dear ISD,
Your QML Catalyst order has been shipped!
Your parcel should be with you within the next 4 - 7 working days.
Please allow up to 5 working days for your tracking to activate.
This time truth was stranger than fiction, as on the sixth working day, in the middle of my last meeting on a Thursday afternoon, I got a "come get your crap from the service point" message in my phone. I drove to the nearby fuel station and took a quick look at the contents as soon as I got home, but that day didn't have enough idle time for me to iterate through the loot.
There was quite a bit to go through. Just taking the first quick photos took a surprisingly long time.
BattleTech: Mercenaries
As the photo revealed, I had chosen the chevron-decorated carbon fibre version of the box. I really couldn't remember what made me choose that as I was originally going for the normal cover art. Maybe I decided to do this because I wasn't using my boxes as coffee table decorations and conversation starters anyway.
The back cover was the same for everyone:
The main box content
The Mercenaries box itself contained what you needed for gaming and some world-building goodness. Dice, rules, tables, Record Sheets, and pieces to play with (plasticy and cardboardy) were enough to get up to speed.
Paper stuff
The amount of printed stuff was decent, along the same lines with the BattleTech: Clan Invasion boxset.
Rules
After the basic rules a good amount of description concentrated on the support fire rules (different types of airstrikes, indirect fire, mine fields). A good amount of text was fleshing out the Mercenaries-box's Chaos Campaign and how you could play different campaigns and careers with the mercs, including contract negotiations and all.
Primer
Like the name suggested the BattleTech universe primer told briefly what this all was about, listed the different eras, offered a couple of Inner Sphere maps to top it up. A handful of the most famous mercenary groups got an introduction, a dozen or two smaller ones only got a name and icon.
Sheets
There was a small booklet full of Record Sheets, also a mercenary contract form, and a few tables for campaign building and operations. With these gaming hours (our latest game was 12,5 years ago at this point!) this was not going to run out ever.
Tokens
In addition to a two-sided map of an Inner Sphere map there were some cardboard tokens to make the gaming more varied. Apparently I dropped the token plates upside down for my photos, there were things like field hospitals, ammo dumps, Elementals, armoured infantry, more or less fortified firing positions, mortars and plain infantry to begin with.
Paper maps
Nicely the included maps "Scattered Woods/River Valley" and "Woodland/Lake Area" were not the same ones that were in the Clan box, but I had this idea I already owned copies of these as the sturdier ones in the 25th Anniversary boxset.
Alpha Strike cards
There were three stacks of cards for different units, pilots and the support. Of course a pair of basic dice, which at least showed clearly what you had.
No one left behind
My epub queue already had four novels by Ciaravella, but as his stuff has been set to the Dark Age and ilClan eras, I had not gotten far enough to start any of his stories yet. I took this one into the long queue, the ~30 page short story wasn't going to take long.
Box units
So the basic box contained a companyful of pieces, which meant three Lances. According to Sarna "A company consists of three lances and may have some auxiliary lances, scouts, armor, or artillery", which gave some space for my extra support units.
Not a single quad 'Mech or a VTOL was included in this set. It would've been funny to find a Scorpion, Tarantula, Thunder Stallion, Goliath or a Great Turtle sneaked in. I didn't care that much about the helos, and wouldn't maybe even recognize anything but a Warrior and/or Yellow Jacket.
The Two-leggers
This tub contained eight BattleMechs. The quick photos were quick, as usual, and in alphabetical order:
This Heavy 'Mech looked quite a lot like a Cataphract, and it was from the first year of the Clan Invasion but was already armed with an ER PPC next to its gauss rifle and four Medium Pulse Lasers. Hm. I didn't quite remember what kind of stuff the Helm Memory Core slowly brought to the Inner Sphere but I didn't think it was this quick?
The fifty-ton Medium 'Mech carried three types of Lasers and a pair of Machine Guns (those pepper grinder -like things in the hips). With the Jump Jets this was not going to be a nice friend in your rear sector.
The maximum-mass Assault 'Mech was also specced by the Great Father. Two Gauss Rifles, two PPCs and four Medium Lasers. Looking at the shapes I'd locate the PPCs and two of the lasers in the side Torsos and the Gauss rifles paired with the Medium Lasers in the arms.
From the much lighter end of the mercs we had the 30-ton Firefly, a jump-capable support 'Mech. Three Medium Lasers, an LRM-5 launcher and an AMS sounded like a functional combo.
Nomen est omen said the ancient Romans and this twenty-ton Flea carried two Medium Lasers, two Small Lasers and evilly also a flamer. It was a twisted idea and I liked it.
OTL-4D Ostsol
The set's second Heavy was a 60-ton Ostsol, and it was armed with only energy weapons: two Large and 4 Medium Lasers.
The third Heavy came straight after, the Quickdraw was also a 60-tonner. It had both LRMs and SRMS, and four Medium Lasers. Two in the arms and two in the back.
The last 'Mech in the box, a 50-ton Medium carried each size of normal Lasers, and had an SRM-4 launcher to back them up.
Ajokit
The non-walking combat units came as pairs, two Galleons and two Maxims:
Personally, I might not have been the one to call a three-laser tank a Galleon, but I wasn't a weapons designer. The two Small Lasers were located in those little side turrets that made me think of the early British tanks, the Medium Laser was in its own top turret.
I would have fun painting those tracks and their friends, even if no one was ever going to see them.
These eelless hovercraft were much more heavily armed than the normal tracked tanks. Two LRM-5 launchers lived in the front glacis plate, the turret had an SRM-6 launcher and I was guessing it also had one of the three MGs. The other two were either hidden somewhere or in the turret as a group of three, I had to check the Record Sheets whenever I had the time. Last but not least the SRM-2 launchers were installed in the miniturrets in the sides.
This, too, was going to be fun to paint if I only could come up with a nice scheme that also worked in this scale.
Armoured Lance
Of course I took a group photo of the new type of bits.
Extras
Now that we had the basic BT:Mercs box checked, we got to the individualized loot. Some of this was included in the Kickstarter's Company level backing, and a couple I added separately. My choices were made completely based on my gut feeling, for example I got the Legends II and III sets because I realized too late that I would've liked the set I back in the day. Why did I choose now something as weird as the BfS:O or two random BfS boxes? I just felt like it, I didn't go for a min-maxing of stuff.
Timber Wolf 1:125
The ten-centimeter, or museum-scale, Timber Wolf was an experience to spin in your hands. What would I do with this anyway? Most likely I'd paint it for my Jade Falcon / Gamma Galaxy. The rest of the family wasn't likely to jump in excitement so it didn't have a future on the prime spot on the shelf :D
I just had to take a comparison shot of the large TW next to a gaming miniature.
It was glorious!
Posters, 3 pcs
Like the last time, there were three two-sided posters included this time too. I still had no space for any of them, so they were headed to the storage with their siblings.
Laserdice
Two laser effect dice pairs were included. I didn't have much to base my decision on, so as the second set's theme I just chose the new BattleTech Chevron.
The most important of the two was, of course, the Clan Jade Falcon dice that I'd taken in the previous kickstarter but for a reason or another they weren't in it. Or maybe they were but got ruined and were included this time. I didn't really remember the fine details of what I had read about the dice discussions, now or several years ago.
Some people had complained about the pointy edges of the dice. I didn't do a test toss, nor even poke my fingertips with them. Had I lost my scientific curiosity?
Challenge coin
This challenge coin stuff didn't get me all excited, either, so I just half-randomly picked the Star League on. The flipside had a Spector SPR-5F.
Overlord-C
Perhaps the silliest but the most fun item was the Map-Scale Overlord-C DropShip for my Clan. I had a hunch that this six-legged Fabergé egg in space had a high chance of pushing its way towards the top of the stack, a much higher chance than what it reasonable ought to have.
The landing gear with their doors were pretty neat-looking but they were not pieces that could just be pressed in place for a game, and then plopped off for storage. A tiny bit of dry-fitting made me believe some tinkering was coming ahead.
Especially this last photo light up my old memories from somewhere mid-nineties when I went to my classmate Jari's place to play Mechwarrior II on their family computer. Somehow my favourite track Pyre Light was easily running in my mind.
Legendary Mechwarriors II
The Legends 2 ForcePack was a group of five units, each of them had a famous pilot in some corner of the universe. For the pilots and their rides there were Alpha Strike cards that I could either use as source of inspiration or just ignore altogether. That, as always, depended on how I felt like.
Again, the photos in alphabetical order:
CES-3R Caesar
Caesar was exactly the same piece as in the Mercenaries box.
CGR-3K Charger
For one reason or another Charger never occupied any special point in my memory as an Assault 'Mech, somehow I mixed it with something Light or Medium. Probably I hadn't played enough games set in the Succession Wars era.
The K in the variant name told that it was a DCMS version that carried 4 Medium Pulse Lasers, an LRM-20 with Artemis IV and five Jump Jets.
DVS-2 Devastator
The Devastator was the same one as in the Mercs box.
MAD-xx Marauder
There were two dorsal gun variants for the classic Marauder, neither of which I put on for the sake of photography. The gun pods had paired bigger and smaller energy weapons and the torso then carried either an autocannon of some variety, or a third PPC, as three PPCs was the only thing better than two PPCs.
SM1 SM Tank Destroyer
For the destruction of tanks the UAC/20 was a very useful tool. The rest of the armaments was 4 machine guns, which were probably there just for nearby infantry.
Legendary Mechwarriors III
The Legends 3 box then contained, nicely enough, one more mini than its predecessor so it could even be used to build an immediate Level II for ComGuards. I wasn't going for that, even if the source material might allow it.
GRF-2N Griffin
Two of these protected the Archon's throne in the Lyran capital. Its basic version had just one pepper mill on the shoulder, but this was the SLDF Royal edition that had slightly cooler toys installed.
In its Right Arm it carried an ER PPC, the shoulders carried SRM-6 launchers. Somewhere inside was a Guardian ECM suite, but that didn't show up on the frontal view of the model, and neither did the heat sinks being doubles.
Hel
The next version of Hellbringer was called Hel, for the freebirths it was something as stupid as Loki mk II, but we didn't support that sort of nonsense. As its armaments Hel carried two Gauss Rifles, two ER Large Lasers and a single SSRM-4 launcher.
MAD-nn Marauder
This Marauder, too, came with optional dorsal guns, neither of which came out for the photo. Both versions suggested by the set were Bounty Hunter's different iterations, Bounty Hunter 3015 and Bounty Hunter 3138.
MAD-8K Marauder II
The so-called Marauder 2 was General Motors' marketing trick in my books that didn't look anywhere as neat as the original Marauder. But maybe someone liked it somehow.
The Kurita version was armed with four glorious PPCs, both arms had a standard PPC and a Light PPC. The shoulder-mounted gun was a Gauss Rifle that was also protected by CASE II.
Timber Wolf
One of the Bounty Hunters had gotten themselves a proper Timber Wolf and they also managed actually maintain it on the free (dark?) markets, which was worth tipping one's hat. In additon to the fancy tools the armament consisted of different pulse lasers, which would require hacking off the LRM pods. Another option was the alt.config S, which would come with four SRM-6 launchers, a couple of MGs and paired Large and Medium Pulse Lasers in the arm pods. This wasn't a direct WYSIWYG approach either, but closer to the actual mini than the green person's setup.
WHM-6R Warhammer
I had some photo-taking difficulties again, but everyone recognized the Warhammer with its two PPCs and the shoulder-mounted missile launcher. The cards offered variants WHM-9K and WHM-6R.
The 9k variant carried Heavy PPCs in its arms and a CASE II-protected MML-9 launcher (Multi-Missile Launcher) on its shoulder. 6R was the one everyone knew and feared 2x PPC; SRM-6; 2x MLas; 2x SLas; 2x MG. That one didn't fit the model's launcher, either.
Battlefield Support: Objectives
On the Battlefield Suppor area these pieces were, for some reason, objectives. Maybe they were targets for the enemies and protectables for myself, yapping about the meanings of such generic words came from my autotranslation to Finnish, sorry about that.
Mobile HQ
The mobile headquarters truck was there to make the unit's messaging easier, it was not a battle unit. In the small turret it carried on Medium Laser as as self-protection weapon.
MASH
I didn't actually know what the MASH actually came from and I definitely wasn't old enough to have watched the old M*A*S*H* series, but now I learned that this came from Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. Of course the military surgery ward was also armed with two Small Lasers.
LT-MOB-25 Mobile Long Tom Artillery w/ Ammo trailer
Long-named and two-parted mobile artillery piece with its ammo truck was something that could've escaped the Wehrmacht's daydream department. In addition to the Long Tom cannon itself it had four machine guns, for self-protection. The Long Tom lobbed 200kg shells worth 25 damage each across several maps. Comparing to some ancient memories the shells of a 2A36 that weighed a quarter of that were massive enough, but maybe these systems compared more to the M65 Atomic Cannon than normal field guns.
Naturally I should have at least four of these things, so I'd have the minimum of one battery. I'd rather have twice that or four times, for style. At this stage one barrel could be a starting point in the Merc life.
Clan Ad Hoc Star
The Ad Hoc Star got on my list solely because of the Kodiak. I had painted one of the old lead minis for my friend Arto, quite a few years ago now. Now I needed to find useful homes for all these.
Fire Falcon
Jade Falcon's 25-ton Light OmniMech was quite laser-heavy: two of the ERSLas, a pair of ERMLas and one Medium Pulse Laser. To back them up there was a single SSRM-4 launcher but I imagined the energy-heavy loadout was not too nice on a 'Mech with few Heat Sinks.
Hellion
This Light 30-tonner was equipped with MASC so it went to places if you dared to run for real. The arms and forehead housed a total of four ER Medium Lasers, the other shoulder had an LRM-10 and a triplet of SSRM-2 launchers were spread to the Torso, for closeup stuff.
Howler
This twenty-ton Light BattleMech was interestingly armed only with three LRM-5s. I guessed the idea was just to punch anyone coming too close, but considering the Clanners dislike of melee fights it sounded a bit odd.
Kodiak
That the Kodiak was the Ghost Bear totem mech was common knowledge, and they had a thing for ursine namings with things like Karhu and Kontio. This one had burned itself into my memories with the Ghost Bear's Legacy intro, again some decades ago. In addition to the evil-looking claws it had eight ER Medium Lasers in its hands, on the shoulders an UAC/20 and a pair of SSRM-6 launchers, and as a struck of genius a single ER Large Laser installed right next to the fusion engine.
Pack Hunter
A thirty-ton one-trick pony from the Wolves reminded me of a Borg or the Wolfenstein 3D cleaver-pistol zombies (episode 2). The head's sensor would take a nice jewel, if I managed better with yellows this time. Being the basic version of Pack Hunter the shoulder gun was an ERPPC with its targeting laser.
Clan Direct Fire Star
I chose the Direct Fire Star only because of the Rifleman. The others were nice additions, but most of the ForcePacks were loaded so that I was usually interested in one or maybe two minis in them.
Grizzly
This Heavy (70 tons) Ghost Bear unit was a thing that continued their jumping bears. A Gauss Rifle, an LRM-10 launcher and a royal flush of Pulse Lasers.
Highlander IIC
Clan view on the Highlander roamed the battlefields without a kilt, but jumped on its enemies like the freebirth original. One arm was used up by the Gauss Rifle, the chest got filled with an LRM-20 and a triplet of Medium Pulse Lasers. On the Left Arm a pair of SSRM-6 launchers boosted up the punch of its punches.
Bane 7
I found the hundred-tonner's armaments oddly modern, as it carried something called HAG/40s (Hyper Assault Gauss Rifle) in its arms, and something much more familiar in the torso: a Large Pulse Laser and four ER Medium Laser.
Phoenix Hawk IIC
For an eighty-tonner this Clan BattleMech was armed with confusingly few weapons: two Machine Guns and two UAC/10s.
Rifleman IIC / IIC 2
A staple in the flakmechs was the Rifleman and its variants. The IIC itself had paired Large Pulse Lasers in its arms and there was a single ER Small Laser to fill the gaps, maybe. The IIC 2 variant had all weapons replaced with Ultra Autocannon 2s.
Salvage Box: Visigoth
Us stupidly quick backers were gifted with a Clan OmniFighter. Why wasn't this one in the Clan Invasion box and the Shilone in this one? Maybe the Powers that Be knew, but probably weren't telling.
It was a Medium ASF and the main variant carried an LB-10X, five ER Medium Lasers, two Small Pulse Lasers and two SSRM-2 launchers. The card was promoting Carew of the Wolves but I was most definitely going to go down that route.
Salvage Box: Blood Asp
At some point during the Kickstarter campaign the 90 ton Blood Asp was unlocked and it was such a curiously shaped mini that I picked up one of them. I didn't have any plans for painting any Star Adders anytime soon if ever. Isorla, said the Jade Falcon.
The Prime had eaten two Gauss Rifles but also a pair of weird Heavy Medium Lasers. On top of those it also had a couple of Medium Pulse Lasers and an SSRM-6 launcher.
Salvage Box: Mercenaries
I had only picked one of these mystery boxes, but as they had made some mistakes :tm: in the factory so some early boxes had vehicles instead of 'Mechs. All of us who had any Salvage Boxes got compensated with an extra box.
1 random 'Mech (1/2): DV-6M Dervish
This Dervish would get to pose next to its 25th Anniversary sibling, and that'd be a fun thing for comparisons.
1 random 'Mech (2/2): Phoenix Hawk IIC
We had already seen a Phoenix Hawk IIC in this post, this was funnily (or annoyingly if you only wanted new bits) the third double mini in a short time.
Salvage Box: Clan Invasion: Piranha
From the Clan lottery I received something I had never seen before, a 20-ton Piranha developed by the Clan that until recently was known as Diamond Shark. It had pretty Spiderlike set of weapons but in sick numbers: 12 Machine Guns, two ER Medium Lasers and one ER Small Laser. Without a MASC it ran at 150km/h which was evil.
Salvage Box: Battlefield Support
Under some weird spell I chose, instead of that many more 'Mechs, two random boxes of vehicles. Maybe I was wishing for more Long Toms even if the probabilities were low. Or maybe the answer was a simple "because I felt like it" which wasn't too far-fetched either, as in my mind all of these were just on top of the stuff I specifically wanted to get.
2 random vehicles (1/2)
A GAL-106 Galleon Light Tank came with a light Pegasus hover tank. The Galleons we had already talked about, so I added just the Pegasus' stuff here. The scout's basic variant had a Medium Laser and two SRM-6 launchers.
2 random vehicles (2/2)
Hetzer Wheeled Assault Gun and another Pegasus emerged from the second random box, and the flying horsey we just saw in the paragraph above. The wheeled, very German-inspired assault gun was pretty much what you'd excpect with that name: an AC/20 to spread fear into the back plates of overconfident 'Mech pilots.
Salvage Box: Savannah Master
These grandiously named hovercraft were so cosmically tiny that I didn't even open the ziploc bag for these quick photos. Maybe best known in the lore from the Warrior Trilogy, these were used mostly for Zoom & Boom attack patterns because the cruelly fast but cardboard-armoured craft were armed with a single Medium Laser each.
This was one of the longest-time-spent-as-draft posts ever :)
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